The Rhode Island Board of Education must discuss a student-led petition that seeks to reexamine using the NECAP as a high-stakes graduation requirement in open session within 30 days.

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Board of Education must discuss a student-led petition that seeks to reexamine using the NECAP as a high-stakes graduation requirement in open session.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Luis Matos ruled that the Board of Education violated the Open Meetings Law when it discussed the New England Common Assessment Program in closed session.

The board said it went into closed session to discuss a lawsuit filed by the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Providence students and other public interest groups.

After discussing the pending litigation, however, the Board of Education went on to discuss the merits of the petition in closed session, Matos found. In its petition, the Providence Student Union had asked the board to do one of three things: reject the NECAP as a graduation requirement, let the regulation stand or amend it.

Citing the Open Meetings Law on Friday, Matos said it is “essential to the maintenance of a Democratic society that public meetings be conducted in an open manner.”

“The people who went to that meeting were deprived of their rights under the Open Meetings [Law],” he said. “They were simply apprised of the vote without further discussion. Any discussion not subject to litigation must be held in an open forum.

“It is an issue that must be held to the light of day,” Matos said. “I declare the board’s vote null and void and order the petition to be addressed in an open forum within 30 days.”

Cauldierre McKay, a member of the student union and a Classical High School senior, said he was pleased that board members will finally debate the subject in public.

“This is an important issue,” he said, “and we hope the board will revisit its decision after seeing the negative impacts of this graduation policy or at least talk to the students most impacted.”

Board Chairwoman Eva-Marie Mancuso said she would comply with the judge’s decision, and that the board would vote on the petition at its next meeting in May.

The NECAP has become one of the most polarizing issues in education in Rhode Island in many years, with large numbers of students, teachers and parents opposing the test because they say it penalizes high school seniors instead of the school districts that have failed to prepare them.

High-stakes testing has also become a lightning rod nationwide, with hundreds of parents opting out of the test in communities from Seattle to New York City.

The Board of Education itself is divided on the subject. After its closed-door discussion on Sept. 9, the board voted, 6 to 5, against the students’ petition.

Supporters of the NECAP, including Mancuso and state Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist, say something must be done to make a high school diploma more meaningful.

This isn’t the first time that the Board of Education has run afoul of the Open Meetings Law.

Last August, a Superior Court judge ruled that the board must hold any discussion of the NECAP in open session or remove the topic from its upcoming retreat. In response, the board held the entire two-day retreat in public.

The ACLU had filed a lawsuit asking the court to enjoin the board from discussing high-stakes testing during its retreat, which was supposed to be held behind closed doors. The ACLU argued that any conversation about graduation requirements must be held in public.

At the time, Judge Daniel A. Procaccini said, “I have to consider the interests of the public and those interests loom large in this case.”

On Friday, Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU in Rhode Island, called the judge’s ruling “a ringing affirmation of the principles underlying the state’s Open Meetings Law.”

“We are hopeful,” he said, “that when the high-stakes testing requirement is given a fair and full airing at a public meeting, board members will recognize the damage that has been caused by the NECAP and reverse its position.”